First Of Her Kind (Book 1) Read Free

constricted around the words as her eyes blurred with tears. "My aunt doesn’t have any time, Bolin."
    She turned back to Fane. It would help if Bolin took her side. Between the two of them, maybe they could talk sense into Meriol -- convince her to abandon the Goddess's plans. Ciara would even swear to honor the object of her aunt's devotion if it would give them more time together.
    "Ciara-"
    But Bolin, more often than not, took Meriol's side.
    "Did my aunt send you to lecture me on how this is all the will of the Goddess, and I should just accept it?" Fane twitched as the brush landed with renewed vengeance. "If so, you needn't bother, she's already done so. Repeatedly."
    "Then for her sake perhaps you should listen."
    Ciara squeezed her eyes shut. "What business is it of yours anyhow?"
    "Your aunt saved my life," he said. "I owe her a debt."
    "Well, you'll soon be free of that burden, won't you?"
    She felt him come up behind her and tensed. Goddess's light, she didn't want his sympathy any more than Fane's consoling. The gelding swung his head around and Bolin reached past Ciara to stroke his nose.
    "Being relieved of that debt gives me no pleasure," he said. "Don't you think your aunt has enough worries this day without you adding to them?"
    "What do you know of it?" Ciara snapped. She turned to face him, but stopped short of throwing the brush at his head.
    "I know there are some things we can't change, no matter how badly we'd like to."
    Ciara drew in a deep breath. Strengthening words with earth magic -- a healers’ trick to help patients focus on something besides the pain, or to find sleep -- had been an early lesson that had come easily to her.
    "Leave. Me. Alone," she said, with a subtle mental push for Bolin to go. Apparently too subtle since he didn't leave. Ciara fought to keep her anger from crumbling. "Why must the Goddess take her now?"
    Bolin shook his head. "The Goddess's plans are beyond my ken."
    "And you don't question them, I suppose?"
    "I do," he said. "Frequently. It gets me nowhere."
    Ciara looked at him in shock. She hadn't expected that answer, not from Bolin.
    "I know it's hard to accept-" he began.
    Ciara gathered Fane's lead rope. "You know nothing of it."
    She shouldered past Bolin, blinking tears from her eyes as she tugged Fane towards the pasture gate. Of course he didn't understand. How could he? He probably adored the Goddess as much as her aunt did.
    In the same, equal measure that Ciara despised her.
     
    * * *
     
    Bolin watched Ciara march away, her shoulders back and her boot heels grinding into the dirt with each step. She nearly ran down Findley as the horse master rounded the corner. Ciara muttered what might have been an apology, but never slowed her pace, the hapless Fane plodding along behind her as Findley flattened against the barn to get out of their way.
    The horse master’s frown faded when he turned and caught site of Bolin. "Ha!  I thought I saw Sandeen round back. He's a fine horse, that one." Findley winked. "Maybe one day you'll let me use him on my mares, hmm?"
    Bolin hardly heard him. Even after Ciara turned Fane loose in the pasture and went into the barn, the strength of her mood hung heavy in the air like a storm building in the distance. It raised the hairs on Bolin’s arms.
    Findley’s thick brows met in a sharp ‘V’ above his eyes. "You shouldn’t look too harsh on her. She's having a hard go of it these days. Don't say as I blame her. It's hard for all of us."
    "She needs to learn to control her emotions," Bolin said, half to himself. He looked at Findley. "Have there been any more mishaps?"
    The ‘V’ deepened and Findley rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. "No," he drew the word out as he thought. "Not since last fall, if I remember right."
    Bolin hadn’t witnessed the outburst, but a huge oak down near the creek bore a blackened scar where a large limb had once been. No amount of earth magic could do that, though Ciara possessed almost